My short walk this week at Blaenige, near Cynwyl Elfed in Carmarthenshire was a mixture of snow, sunshine, wind and a brief spot of rain – in other words, typical for this part of the world. I had to take it carefully down the steep track but on the way I found some great views over the landscape as well as some attractive details in my closer surroundings.
Details and Vistas
Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Walks, Weather and tagged Blaenige, blue sky, Carmarthenshire, landscape, moss, nature, photography, seed heads, snow, trees, walking, walks, weather.
Like the variety in the shots you’ve included, when it must have been tempting to go for pure white blankets (assuming there were any).
Struck by the placename too, a link with Yorkshire which before being overrun by Angles and Danes was anciently Elmet (Elfed in Welsh).
Thanks. There were thin white blankets around but not so much where I was walking and it is a sense of the walk I want to provide. Very very interesting to hear about the Yorkshire connection. Do you know where the name Elfed comes from or its meaning?
I don’t, but I suppose I ought to find out. There’s a Dark Age monument in North Wales — can’t place it at the moment — which describes the person commemorated as ‘Elmetiacus’ or some such, “a citizen of Elmet,” so I guess this South Walian placename example may commemorate a family of British incomers. I shall have to research it now!
So the Yorkshire Elmet would be earlier than the Welsh?
This should explain all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmet
It’s later explained that “Elmet appears to have had ties with Wales; an early Christian inscription found in Gwynedd reads “ALIOTVS ELMETIACOS HIC IACET”, or “Aliotus the Elmetian lies here”. A cantref … of Dyfed was also named Elfed, the Welsh equivalent of Elmet. A number of ancestors of Ceretic are recorded in Welsh sources: one of Taliesin’s poems is for his father Gwallog ap Llaennog, who may have ruled Elmet near the end of the 6th century.”
So there you have it: the Yorkshire Elmet is earlier than Elfed!
What a lovely walk. I feel quite blessed when I’m out and get to see both greenery and snow. There’s just something about it!
Thanks Wade – I couldn’t miss the opportunity, it might be our only snow here this soggy winter.